City plans water upgrades ahead of INDOT work

Plans are in motion to replace the 100-year-old water main under U.S. 231 in Huntingburg and to double the city’s water plant capacity.

If all goes as planned, work could start on the projects, totaling $6 million, in late fall.

“We will have all this happening at the same time,” Water Superintendent Gary Meyerholtz said. “We will have a busy year and a half.”

He added that the city hopes to obtain an State Revolving Fund loan to cover the cost.

Plans call for replacing the water main along U.S. 231 from Second to First avenues, from First to Third streets and from Fifth to 12th streets, about 12 blocks. The project has been designed; specifications need to be written and a public hearing needs to be held before the project is sent out for bids.

City officials want to complete the water main work before the Indiana Department of Transportation comes in to rebuild a portion of U.S. 231 in the city.

“I don’t want that 100-year-old main under there,” Meyerholtz said. “So we have to be done by then.”

According the plan, the main replacement work will be completed by June or July 2020. “That will give us six months to work the bugs out before they come in and rebuild [U.S.] 231,” he said.

City officials met with INDOT representatives last week to talk about plans. “We wanted to make sure they were aware of what we were going to be doing,” Mayor Denny Spinner told the Huntingburg Common Council Tuesday, “and (to inquire) if there was any work that could be done (during the water main work) to assist INDOT, so that they don’t have to redo things when they come through.”

Improvements will also be made to the city’s water plant. Four filters will be added, to double the plant’s capacity. And a pit will be buried in the ground near Chestnut Street to tie the south water tank back into the plant’s distribution system. A pit is like a big vault that has in it a valve that runs automatically from the pit to the filter plant. The valve opens and closes to allow water to the be brought back into the plant.

Meyerholtz expects these projects to be let for bids sometime this fall.

The plant’s telemetry is also being upgraded; that work is scheduled to be done on April 5-7, Meyerholtz told the council Tuesday. Telemetry is the technology that runs the plant and its distribution system, performing automated functions, such as taking measurements, collecting data and controlling valves.